Key Terms, Meanings, & Example from “Once upon a Time”
Feral children
Neglected children
Anti-social behavior
Receives brought up in an imaginary world
Example: Henry from Once upon a time is a perfect example as he was adopted by Evil Queen Regina Mills
Looking glass self
The way someone see oneself from the perception of others
Example: Henry got to realize that he is the only one who is not a character of Storybrooke.
Play stage
Pretend to be another person
Example: After realization Henry keep behaving as a character of Storybrooke to make others feel that he is from them.
Game stage
Organized game
Example: Henry plays his game in an organized manner to reach to his biological mother Emma.
Dual nature of the self
Portraying different positive side while having a negative side
Example: Evil Queen Regina Mills who had dual nature while having negative side.
Thomas theorem
Sociology theory or concept
Based on real situations
develop an understanding about situations
Example: Storybrooke is an imaginary world that is based on real situations such as use of TV and Internet is shown.
Definition of the situation
Explaining the real scenario
Example: Mary Margaret Blanchard shows the reality of Storybrooke to Henry by giving him cherished book of fairy tales.
Expression of behavior
Mixture of different actions and reactions
Example: On the night of Emma’s 28th birthday to refuse Henry and his believes she used different actions to deliver her thoughts/agreements/disagreements to Henry and Neal Cassidy
Impression management
Forming and managing the desired view according to the situation
Example: Evil Queen while playing dual natured role managed her expressions and controlled her impressions brilliantly.
Cooling the mark out
Actions and behaviors of others explains the situation
Example: When Emma refused to believe Henry, the Storybrooke and classic characters with frozen memories helped Henry to prove his words.
Hidden curriculum
Things students learn from the course
Teaching methods to deliver course
Example: Mary Margaret Blanchard, who is teacher of Henry Mills help him to differentiate into reality and story.
Role
The expected behavior from someone due to the his/her status
Example: Evil Queen became adoptive mother of Henry and initially she proved herself as a loving and caring mother but later on she kidnapped his son Henry and play negative role.
Role conflict
Different roles performed by one beyond expectations.
Example: Emma was in real world as a common lady but she go to the storybrooke to save people from there as a savior.
Role strain
Contradictory behavior within one role
Example: Evil Queen was expected to show love to Henry his adoptive child but she curse him as well.
Co-presence
Direct interaction
Example: When Henry was in town Emma denied that Henry is her son but his face-to-face interaction with her convinced her.
American culture is rapidly changing, and it is due to the changing taste of Americans that they are accepting various new things in their culture. It should be noted that media is playing a strong role to bring change in American culture and our lives. Popular culture means the things within a culture are popular because most of the people like that thing. One of the most famous TV series “Once Upon a Time” on ABC channel is most popular among people. It should be noted that it has a strong influence on people and culture. Although, it is inspired by Disney characters, but it is not a part of Disney. It is a fairy tale drama full of fiction, fantasy, adventure, and mystery. However, the matter of fact is that this drama is the best example of interaction theory.
The most interesting thing in this TV show is that there are different characters from Disney world, which interacted with each other in this show like never before. It will not be incorrect to state that the characters in this drama are designed considering the negative and positive side of people in this world. The way story moves shows that the use of interaction theory is very strong because it has various turning points in which many problems are solved just by interacting with each other in a positive manner. It is also noted that the Thomas theorem is also used in this drama and for that real life, situations are used to create better understanding. For example, use of Internet and Television.
Moreover, Evil Queen role in this show is admirable because she interacted with people of Storybrooke in a way that no one ever realized that she is not Regina Mills but Evil Queen, who uses powerful curse to become Mayor of Stroybrooke. She was living an unchanging existence as she wanted to look beautiful always and never wanted to look over aged. However, Regina loved his adopted child Henry a lot and thus, he became a source of conflict between Emma and Regina. Both these women played a strong role in this TV series in which with the help of interaction theory expose variety of behaviors, interesting situations, and reasons to act in certain ways.
There are many scenes in which intentions and emotions encountered in an inter-subjective way. Moreover, there are various scenes in which it was easy for the viewers to read the mind of the characters that what it is going to happen next in this show. It is all because of the interactions they had and intentions Evil Queen had to the general public of Storybrooke. The mental state of Evil Queen and Emma is a clear depiction of their emotions and intentions. It is the reason that Henry got the idea that hey mother Regina is not a sincere lady, and she is hiding things from him.
The embodied actions and expressive behaviors of Regina showed her real face to the people of Storybrooke. However, Emma was brought by Henry to break the curse and let the people of Storybrooke remind their actual identities as they all lost their memory. Although Emma did her best to help the characters to return to the fairy tale world and for that, she gave her lessons to deal with their own dual identities. They way she interacted with all of them were interesting and also the best example of interaction theory.
References
Andersen, M. L., Taylor, H. F., & Logio, K. A. (2014). Sociology: The Essentials. New York: Cengage Learning.
Horowitz, A., & Kitsis, E. (2016). Once Upon A Time. Retrieved from IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843230/
